US 5,500,635 · Granted 1996-03-19
The Patent Behind Light-Up Shoes That Glow When You Run
Imagine a shoe that lights up every time your foot hits the ground. This patent describes how to embed special materials called piezoelectrics into everyday products like shoes, balls, or fishing lures so they generate electricity from impact and trigger LEDs or sounds. It's the tech that powers those glowing sneakers.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers embedding piezoelectric material into consumer products (especially footwear) as an impact sensor that triggers electrical responses. What's protected here is the specific combination of polymeric piezoelectric elements wired to battery-powered light or sound emitters, plus the option to include temperature sensors and microprocessors that decide which lights to flash based on impact force or heat. Anyone manufacturing a shoe or ball with this exact impact-sensing-to-LED architecture would potentially infringe.
Why it matters
This patent opened the door to a whole category of interactive footwear and sports gear that respond to movement and impact in real time. Before this, shoes were mostly passive. The ability to embed sensors and light sources directly into products created opportunities for athletic brands to build consumer appeal through glow-up technology, and it laid groundwork for later innovations in wearable electronics and biometric sports gear.
Real-world use
When you jump in a pair of light-up sneakers and the soles flash with each landing, that flash is powered by the piezoelectric impact sensor this patent describes.
Original USPTO abstract
A product, in particular a shoe, apparel, a ball or a fishing lure, incorporating an impact sensing element made from polymeric piezoelectric material. In response to impact, the piezoelectric material generates an electrical signal to a battery-powered light- or sound-emitting unit or to an information display device which is at least partially molded into or contained in the product, thus causing circuitry to energize the light- or sound-emitting device from the battery or to display information on the information display device. In some embodiments involving light-emitting devices such as LEDs, the light is conducted to an outside surface of the product directly through the LED or via one or more optical fibers. A shoe can be provided with numerous light-emitting devices, one or more impact sensing elements, a temperature sensor and appropriate circuitry to process the impact and temperature information. This information is then used to light appropriate light-emitting devices such as to display a bar graph of temperature or force of impact, to light or flash individual light-emitting devices or to activate an information display device. In addition, a microprocessor can be included in the circuitry to provide preprogrammed control of the light emitting devices or to evaluate the input from the impact sensing element and then light the appropriate light emitting device or devices or to control the information displayed on the information display de2vice.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,500,635
- Filing date
- 1994-11-10
- Grant date
- 1996-03-19
- Assignee
- Mott; Jonathan C.
- Inventor(s)
- MOTT; JONATHAN C.
- CPC class
- A43B3/36
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